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Der Revolver
In einer Regennacht findet ein junger Mann in den Straßen von Tokio eine Leiche – und neben ihr einen Revolver. Nishikawa nimmt die Waffe an sich und entwickelt schon nach kurzer Zeit eine unheimliche Obsession. All seine Gedanken, sein ganzes Leben kreisen um das perfekte kleine Wunderwerk. Und um die vier Kugeln, die sich noch immer in der Trommel befinden. Irgendwann ist es nicht mehr genug, die Waffe zu besitzen. Er muss sie abfeuern.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2003
106 people are currently reading
2292 people want to read
About the author
Fuminori Nakamura
28 books678 followersHis debut novel Jū (The Gun) won the Shinchō New Author Prize in 2002. Also received the Noma Prize for New Writers in 2004 for Shakō [The Shade]. Winner of the Akutagawa Prize in 2005 for Tsuchi no naka no kodomo (Child in the Ground). Suri (Pickpocket) won the Ōe Kenzaburō Prize in 2010. His other works include Sekai no Hate (The Far End of the World), Ōkoku (Kingdom), and Meikyū (Labyrinth).
See also 中村 文則.
See also 中村 文則.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 332 reviews
October 1, 2019
A young man, a college student, finds a gun one night when he was walking in the rain. He went under an overpass to get out of the rain and found a dead man, shot in the head, with a gun near his right hand. By taking the gun and keeping it, he realizes later that when the body is eventually examined by police the whole nature of the investigation turns from suicide to homicide. Later he also realizes that if the police find him with the gun, would it make him a suspect in what they think is a murder?
The story is how the gun (with four bullets left in it) becomes an obsession and takes over the man’s life. He buys a special satchel to keep it in and special cloths to clean it. He polishes it daily. He’s also always looking at TV news and newspapers to see stories about the police investigation of what they think is a murder.
He can’t explain it, but the gun brings his life into focus. He becomes a better student and attends more classes; he turns in work on time rather than late.
He muses about how a gun takes away the gore of killing someone, such as by stabbing, and helps someone disassociate himself from killing. It makes death easy even though, as the main character thinks, “It made me a little uncomfortable to put words like ‘ease’ and ‘death’ together.”
He is going out with two girls that he likes and they both seem to like him, but they are always asking him “what’s wrong?” Well, what’s wrong is he is always thinking about the gun. “The girl talked about various things, and I made responsive sounds at the appropriate moments.” At one point he realizes “I’m not the one using the gun…the gun is using me.”
He starts carrying the gun with him occasionally, taking it to campus. He realizes at some point he is going to fire the gun. He goes into some nearby woods, without the gun, to scope out some places to fire it. But before that happens, he uses it first elsewhere. In fact, I won’t put in spoilers, but he uses it on two different occasions in the city.
I also won’t reveal why they suspect him, but a police detective repeatedly shows up at his door. They start going out for coffee. We go into Raskolnikov mode. The police know he took the gun. The main character knows they know he took it – but – can they prove it?
[image error]
Of course, it ends in tragedy.
A good story. The book is translated from the Japanese. The author is best known for his novel, The Thief. He has had several books translated into English. This book was his first published novel in Japan and was only recently translated.
Top photo of Fuji Michi Road in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture from www.alojapan.com
Photo of the author from sohopress.com
The story is how the gun (with four bullets left in it) becomes an obsession and takes over the man’s life. He buys a special satchel to keep it in and special cloths to clean it. He polishes it daily. He’s also always looking at TV news and newspapers to see stories about the police investigation of what they think is a murder.
He can’t explain it, but the gun brings his life into focus. He becomes a better student and attends more classes; he turns in work on time rather than late.
He muses about how a gun takes away the gore of killing someone, such as by stabbing, and helps someone disassociate himself from killing. It makes death easy even though, as the main character thinks, “It made me a little uncomfortable to put words like ‘ease’ and ‘death’ together.”
He is going out with two girls that he likes and they both seem to like him, but they are always asking him “what’s wrong?” Well, what’s wrong is he is always thinking about the gun. “The girl talked about various things, and I made responsive sounds at the appropriate moments.” At one point he realizes “I’m not the one using the gun…the gun is using me.”
He starts carrying the gun with him occasionally, taking it to campus. He realizes at some point he is going to fire the gun. He goes into some nearby woods, without the gun, to scope out some places to fire it. But before that happens, he uses it first elsewhere. In fact, I won’t put in spoilers, but he uses it on two different occasions in the city.
I also won’t reveal why they suspect him, but a police detective repeatedly shows up at his door. They start going out for coffee. We go into Raskolnikov mode. The police know he took the gun. The main character knows they know he took it – but – can they prove it?
[image error]
Of course, it ends in tragedy.
A good story. The book is translated from the Japanese. The author is best known for his novel, The Thief. He has had several books translated into English. This book was his first published novel in Japan and was only recently translated.
Top photo of Fuji Michi Road in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture from www.alojapan.com
Photo of the author from sohopress.com
August 21, 2020
”The thing was that I had found it. The same way that, for instance, some people found pleasure drawing pictures or making music, or they relied on work or women, drugs or religion, I felt like I had discovered what I was passionate about. And for me, that thing was nothing more than the gun. There was nothing wrong with me. That’s what I realized. And I started to relax--I lit a cigarette and leaned back in my chair.”
Nishikawa stumbles upon a dead man in the street. When corpses are in coffins slathered with makeup to make them look as if they are sleeping peacefully, they hold a certain amount of fascination for some people, but finding a sprawled dead body in the street...well, you’ve stepped right in the middle of death. Moments ago someone was alive and now they are departed. This is raw death before the ensuing packaging for disposal can begin. As interesting as a corpse with a bullet hole through its head would be, Nishikawa is more mesmerized by the shiny metal object in the man’s hand.
He picks it up, taking it with him. It is a revolver with four bullets. Over the next several days, he can’t stop looking at it, stroking it, and thinking about using it. ”Once again, its overwhelming beauty and presence did not disappoint. I felt as though I might be transported--that is to say, that the world within myself could be unlocked--I felt full of such possibilities.”
When you consider that there are more guns in the United States than there are people and there are nearly zero guns in Japan, the chances of Nishikawa finding a gun on the street are astronomical, but if he were walking around the right neighborhood in the United States, he might see a small arsenal within the space of a few blocks. I can remember one time I was in LA and pulled into a convenience store to get gas. This was back in the day when you had to prepay, but the pumps were not necessarily set up for credit cards. I was waiting in line at the register behind this kid who couldn’t have been more than ten. He was pulling stuff out of his pocket, trying to find enough change to pay for his Mountain Dew, and among the many things he plunked on the counter was a revolver...as casually as if it were a stick of gum. The attendant merely gave it a glance. He probably had a sawed off shotgun clipped under the counter, so that peashooter was not something worthy of worry.
I grew up with guns. To me, they were just a tool, like a hammer or a screwdriver. We had a rifle in every vehicle in case we needed to put down a cow that was suffering with a bullet behind the ear or scare off some coyotes who were trying to bring down a newborn calf. We did hunt some, but hunting was more for the leisure classes who seemed particularly fascinated in proving their manhood every year by killing something. During most hunting seasons, we just tried not to get shot by some city slicker from Denver who had more gun than he had brains.
People are fascinated by guns. They might be afraid of them, or they might be obsessed with them, but rarely are people neutral about guns. I get asked frequently by people what it is like to shoot a real gun, as most of the guns they have used have been pixelated on TV screens while playing a video game. Nishikawa should have gone his whole life without ever even seeing a gun, but here he is polishing one every night like a blue barrelled cock. The need to release, to spray those bullets into someone, something, is becoming an infatuation. It isn’t enough to simulate it happening in his brain anymore; he needs the real thing. It is porn versus real life.
He has girlfriends. He seems to be a reasonably attractive guy. One of his girlfriends he calls Toast Girl (he can’t remember her name) because she fixed him toast for breakfast after a night of desultory intercourse. Another one is named Yuko. ”Today she had again been wearing a short skirt, and when she leaned forward I had seen her pale breasts. I felt satisfied with the way I had behaved today. Tomorrow, I thought, I would ask her out for a drink. But then again, if we ended up doing it, I felt as if the fun would end for me there. I wanted to have sex with her, but once we had done it, I would probably get bored.” These scenes reminded me of the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less than Zero. World weary kids who think they’ve done it all and seen it all, and nothing interesting is ever going to happen to them again.
Nishikawa is not stimulated by his university studies nor by the flocks of beautiful girls. He has too much free time on his hands and lacks the imagination to know how to fill that time...until he finds the gun.
The tension mounts nicely as we start to realize that Nishikawa is going to do something stupid. I found myself running the possibilities through my head and not liking any of them. He has changed as a person, having that gun on his person. He feels more significant, as if the gun has made him taller and stronger. He does realize that his relationship with the gun has changed. ”I’m not the one using the gun, I thought. The gun is using me.”
The story takes on more weight being set in Japan than if it had been set in the United States. They have such a different cultural relationship with guns than we do. Last year, nearly 40,000 Americans died from gun related deaths. (Interesting enough about the same number of people are killed in car related accidents. It is sort of staggering to think that if we eliminate guns and cars from our lives nearly 80,000 more Americans each year would live longer lives.) If a pandemic hit the United States and killed that many people, there would be panic in the streets. There would be a consensus among all Americans to do something to keep more people from dying from whatever the threat might be...well, except for guns. We love our guns. We love our guns more than we love our children’s lives. Somehow gun ownership became political, and like with anything political in the modern era of American politics, that means that a consensus on sensible gun control is impossible to achieve.
Oh and by the way, the number of Japanese killed by firearms every year is nearly zero. Even lower if Nishikawa had never found that gun.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Nishikawa stumbles upon a dead man in the street. When corpses are in coffins slathered with makeup to make them look as if they are sleeping peacefully, they hold a certain amount of fascination for some people, but finding a sprawled dead body in the street...well, you’ve stepped right in the middle of death. Moments ago someone was alive and now they are departed. This is raw death before the ensuing packaging for disposal can begin. As interesting as a corpse with a bullet hole through its head would be, Nishikawa is more mesmerized by the shiny metal object in the man’s hand.
He picks it up, taking it with him. It is a revolver with four bullets. Over the next several days, he can’t stop looking at it, stroking it, and thinking about using it. ”Once again, its overwhelming beauty and presence did not disappoint. I felt as though I might be transported--that is to say, that the world within myself could be unlocked--I felt full of such possibilities.”
When you consider that there are more guns in the United States than there are people and there are nearly zero guns in Japan, the chances of Nishikawa finding a gun on the street are astronomical, but if he were walking around the right neighborhood in the United States, he might see a small arsenal within the space of a few blocks. I can remember one time I was in LA and pulled into a convenience store to get gas. This was back in the day when you had to prepay, but the pumps were not necessarily set up for credit cards. I was waiting in line at the register behind this kid who couldn’t have been more than ten. He was pulling stuff out of his pocket, trying to find enough change to pay for his Mountain Dew, and among the many things he plunked on the counter was a revolver...as casually as if it were a stick of gum. The attendant merely gave it a glance. He probably had a sawed off shotgun clipped under the counter, so that peashooter was not something worthy of worry.
I grew up with guns. To me, they were just a tool, like a hammer or a screwdriver. We had a rifle in every vehicle in case we needed to put down a cow that was suffering with a bullet behind the ear or scare off some coyotes who were trying to bring down a newborn calf. We did hunt some, but hunting was more for the leisure classes who seemed particularly fascinated in proving their manhood every year by killing something. During most hunting seasons, we just tried not to get shot by some city slicker from Denver who had more gun than he had brains.
People are fascinated by guns. They might be afraid of them, or they might be obsessed with them, but rarely are people neutral about guns. I get asked frequently by people what it is like to shoot a real gun, as most of the guns they have used have been pixelated on TV screens while playing a video game. Nishikawa should have gone his whole life without ever even seeing a gun, but here he is polishing one every night like a blue barrelled cock. The need to release, to spray those bullets into someone, something, is becoming an infatuation. It isn’t enough to simulate it happening in his brain anymore; he needs the real thing. It is porn versus real life.
He has girlfriends. He seems to be a reasonably attractive guy. One of his girlfriends he calls Toast Girl (he can’t remember her name) because she fixed him toast for breakfast after a night of desultory intercourse. Another one is named Yuko. ”Today she had again been wearing a short skirt, and when she leaned forward I had seen her pale breasts. I felt satisfied with the way I had behaved today. Tomorrow, I thought, I would ask her out for a drink. But then again, if we ended up doing it, I felt as if the fun would end for me there. I wanted to have sex with her, but once we had done it, I would probably get bored.” These scenes reminded me of the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less than Zero. World weary kids who think they’ve done it all and seen it all, and nothing interesting is ever going to happen to them again.
Nishikawa is not stimulated by his university studies nor by the flocks of beautiful girls. He has too much free time on his hands and lacks the imagination to know how to fill that time...until he finds the gun.
The tension mounts nicely as we start to realize that Nishikawa is going to do something stupid. I found myself running the possibilities through my head and not liking any of them. He has changed as a person, having that gun on his person. He feels more significant, as if the gun has made him taller and stronger. He does realize that his relationship with the gun has changed. ”I’m not the one using the gun, I thought. The gun is using me.”
The story takes on more weight being set in Japan than if it had been set in the United States. They have such a different cultural relationship with guns than we do. Last year, nearly 40,000 Americans died from gun related deaths. (Interesting enough about the same number of people are killed in car related accidents. It is sort of staggering to think that if we eliminate guns and cars from our lives nearly 80,000 more Americans each year would live longer lives.) If a pandemic hit the United States and killed that many people, there would be panic in the streets. There would be a consensus among all Americans to do something to keep more people from dying from whatever the threat might be...well, except for guns. We love our guns. We love our guns more than we love our children’s lives. Somehow gun ownership became political, and like with anything political in the modern era of American politics, that means that a consensus on sensible gun control is impossible to achieve.
Oh and by the way, the number of Japanese killed by firearms every year is nearly zero. Even lower if Nishikawa had never found that gun.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
August 30, 2024
Asiatische Schriftsteller sind ja völlig Meines und haben mich ganz selten enttäuscht. Sie vermitteln meist eine fremde exotische Kultur, beschreiben eine mir völlig fremde Gesellschaft mit unbekannten Sitten, haben aber dennoch eine Schreibkultur auf höchstem Niveau entwickelt, die uns Europäern diese unerklärliche mysteriöse Welt sprachlich gewandt beizubringen weiß. Deshalb habe ich mich mutig auf den mir bisher völlig unbekannten Autor eingelassen und war auch diesmal sehr begeistert.
Der Roman ist sehr kurz, extrem spannend, richtet den Fokus der Geschichte ausschließlich auf ein bestimmtes Objekt einer Obsession – einen Revolver – und beschreibt die Beziehung des Protagonisten zu ebendiesem Ding. Das Leben des Studenten Nishikawa ähnelt der langweiligen Existenz einer grauen Maus und wird plötzlich bereichert, als die Hauptfigur eines Nachts in den Händen eines vermutlichen Selbstmörders einen Revolver findet, den er vom Tatort mitnimmt. Plötzlich fühlt sich der Student als kleiner Gangster, als tiefgründiger Mensch mit einem kriminellen Geheimnis, das seinem bisher faden Charakter Unvorhersehbarkeit, Gefährlichkeit und Tiefe vermittelt. Nach und nach werden dieses Ereignis und die Leidenschaft, die er zum Objekt seiner Sehnsucht und Begierde entwickelt, krankhaft zu einer objektophilen Zwangsstörung. Nikishawas restliches Leben existiert zwar noch, tritt jedoch neben der Beschäftigung mit der Waffe total in den Hintergrund, fast wie bei einem musikalischen fade out.
Irgendwann erinnerte mich diese Geschichte in ihrer Zwanghaftigkeit frappant an Patrick Süßkinds Die Taube: die gleiche Länge des Textes und irgendwie die gleiche Obsession, statt Viecherl eben Knarre. Das Ding übernimmt ganz allmählich, schrittweise die Macht über den Menschen. Der Revolver, der ausschließlich dazu gefertigt wurde, um abgefeuert zu werden und damit vielleicht auch jemandem das Leben zu nehmen, fordert seinen Tribut und wirft die bisherige gleichförmige Existenz des Studenten völlig aus den Fugen. Der Protagonist hat sich zumindest in seinem Geiste vom unschlüssigen, schüchternen, gesellschaftlich in strengen Regeln verhafteten, entscheidungsschwachen, verlorenen, zweifelnden japanischen Mann, den ja auch Murakami immer so treffend zu beschreiben weiß, in einen gefährlichen Macher mit Tiefgang und bedrohlichen, ernstzunehmenden Absichten entwickelt.
"Der Revolver war wie ein unbezähmbares, eigenwilliges Wesen. Und ich ahnte, dass ich diesem mächtigen fordernden Wesen nicht mehr lange würde standhalten können und es nur durch den erlösenden Schuss bändigen konnte. Der Gedanke ließ mich schaudern. […] Ich erinnerte mich an mein Glücksgefühl, als ich den Revolver entdeckt hatte. Dennoch hatte ich versucht, einen kühlen Kopf zu bewahren, hatte versucht, mich von meiner Erregung nicht überwältigen zu lassen. […] Am liebsten hätte ich die Zeit zurückgedreht, als der Revolver und ich noch gleichberechtigte Partner gewesen waren. Doch das war nicht mehr möglich. Der Revolver war ein Teil von mir geworden, hatte mein ganzes Denken und Handeln durchdrungen. Zu schießen war die eigentliche Bestimmung eines Revolvers, und so war es auch nur logisch, dass auch ich das wollte."
Ein potenzielles Opfer, ein Tatort und ein Tatplan, mit dem man eventuell vor der Polizei davonkommen kann, werden systematisch entwickelt. Am Ende im Rahmen der realen Umsetzung der lange geschmiedeten Pläne dreht sich der Plot noch drei Mal um 180 Grad, eine sensationelle Dramaturgie, die den Spannungsbogen dieser wirklich kurzen Geschichte so rasant konzipiert, dass ich fast nicht mehr zum Atemholen kam. Und die Moral von der Geschicht: Spiele mit der Knarre nicht.
Fazit: Kurz, knackig, tiefgründig, spannend, rasant, sprachlich sehr ansprechend und sensationell. Absolute Leseempfehlung, das Buch kann in einem Haps verschlungen werden.
Der Roman ist sehr kurz, extrem spannend, richtet den Fokus der Geschichte ausschließlich auf ein bestimmtes Objekt einer Obsession – einen Revolver – und beschreibt die Beziehung des Protagonisten zu ebendiesem Ding. Das Leben des Studenten Nishikawa ähnelt der langweiligen Existenz einer grauen Maus und wird plötzlich bereichert, als die Hauptfigur eines Nachts in den Händen eines vermutlichen Selbstmörders einen Revolver findet, den er vom Tatort mitnimmt. Plötzlich fühlt sich der Student als kleiner Gangster, als tiefgründiger Mensch mit einem kriminellen Geheimnis, das seinem bisher faden Charakter Unvorhersehbarkeit, Gefährlichkeit und Tiefe vermittelt. Nach und nach werden dieses Ereignis und die Leidenschaft, die er zum Objekt seiner Sehnsucht und Begierde entwickelt, krankhaft zu einer objektophilen Zwangsstörung. Nikishawas restliches Leben existiert zwar noch, tritt jedoch neben der Beschäftigung mit der Waffe total in den Hintergrund, fast wie bei einem musikalischen fade out.
Irgendwann erinnerte mich diese Geschichte in ihrer Zwanghaftigkeit frappant an Patrick Süßkinds Die Taube: die gleiche Länge des Textes und irgendwie die gleiche Obsession, statt Viecherl eben Knarre. Das Ding übernimmt ganz allmählich, schrittweise die Macht über den Menschen. Der Revolver, der ausschließlich dazu gefertigt wurde, um abgefeuert zu werden und damit vielleicht auch jemandem das Leben zu nehmen, fordert seinen Tribut und wirft die bisherige gleichförmige Existenz des Studenten völlig aus den Fugen. Der Protagonist hat sich zumindest in seinem Geiste vom unschlüssigen, schüchternen, gesellschaftlich in strengen Regeln verhafteten, entscheidungsschwachen, verlorenen, zweifelnden japanischen Mann, den ja auch Murakami immer so treffend zu beschreiben weiß, in einen gefährlichen Macher mit Tiefgang und bedrohlichen, ernstzunehmenden Absichten entwickelt.
"Der Revolver war wie ein unbezähmbares, eigenwilliges Wesen. Und ich ahnte, dass ich diesem mächtigen fordernden Wesen nicht mehr lange würde standhalten können und es nur durch den erlösenden Schuss bändigen konnte. Der Gedanke ließ mich schaudern. […] Ich erinnerte mich an mein Glücksgefühl, als ich den Revolver entdeckt hatte. Dennoch hatte ich versucht, einen kühlen Kopf zu bewahren, hatte versucht, mich von meiner Erregung nicht überwältigen zu lassen. […] Am liebsten hätte ich die Zeit zurückgedreht, als der Revolver und ich noch gleichberechtigte Partner gewesen waren. Doch das war nicht mehr möglich. Der Revolver war ein Teil von mir geworden, hatte mein ganzes Denken und Handeln durchdrungen. Zu schießen war die eigentliche Bestimmung eines Revolvers, und so war es auch nur logisch, dass auch ich das wollte."
Ein potenzielles Opfer, ein Tatort und ein Tatplan, mit dem man eventuell vor der Polizei davonkommen kann, werden systematisch entwickelt. Am Ende im Rahmen der realen Umsetzung der lange geschmiedeten Pläne dreht sich der Plot noch drei Mal um 180 Grad, eine sensationelle Dramaturgie, die den Spannungsbogen dieser wirklich kurzen Geschichte so rasant konzipiert, dass ich fast nicht mehr zum Atemholen kam. Und die Moral von der Geschicht: Spiele mit der Knarre nicht.
Fazit: Kurz, knackig, tiefgründig, spannend, rasant, sprachlich sehr ansprechend und sensationell. Absolute Leseempfehlung, das Buch kann in einem Haps verschlungen werden.
March 17, 2019
The Gun is the second book I’ve read by master of “Zen Noir” Fuminori Nakamura (but actually the first book he wrote). I found the previous novel I read, The Thief, to be something of a masterpiece. It was as bleak and nihilistic as they come, to such an overwhelming extent that I had to keep putting it down. It was a rather unpleasant little book, but somehow still beautiful and truly noteworthy. While I couldn’t recommend it to everyone, I personally loved it.
Well, don’t go into this one expecting that level of mastery. Remember how I noted this was his first book? It shows. It’s mostly plotless, and has a lot of rambling on from place to place. The narrator really has no direction and it shows (both figuratively and literally as he talks about going places all the time, and then a paragraph later changes his mind and wanders off somewhere else). It’s not exactly a bright and cheery book, but compared to The Thief, it certainly never was bleak enough that I felt I needed to put the book down. That said, the narrator is one of the biggest assholes I’ve read in literature for some time. As in, I really wished someone would just punch him in the face for most of the book.
The plot, in as much as there is one, follows a college student who, while wandering around aimlessly one night, discovers a corpse. The corpse doesn’t particularly interest him, what does is the gun in its hand. He takes the gun home, and it fills him with a sense of self worth and joy he’s never known. He becomes obsessed with it and the feelings it gives him, and he feels that he needs to give it a shot… literally.
If we get right down to it, the book is really just an extended metaphor for how owning a weapon creates violent behavior; a thesis that works given the disturbed nature of our character, but doesn’t particularly work for me as a whole. I honestly thought this book would be more… sinister. While it does go some of the directions I expected, it mostly plays off as a look at how personally nihilistic our narrator is and how detached he feels. Unlike our narrator in The Thief though, I never found him or his philosophies particularly entertaining or thought provoking (I suspect this is mostly because Nakamura was still developing his style). At the start of the book, I did find some of the lines shocking, in particular:
The gun was breathtakingly beautiful as ever. The girl I had just slept with was no comparison for the gun.
That one in particular deserved a reread. It made me think we were going to go somewhere really disturbing… but for most of the book, it’s really just rambling.
That is until the last 50 pages, where our character study truly does become fascinating. This could be deemed a spoiler, so I’ll tag it, but if you’re interested in the book, I’d advise giving it a look anyway.
In closing: this is an obvious first book. It is awkward and suffers from the problems that many first time authors have… but you can see glimpses of the author Nakamura will become. While I can’t give it a full recommendation, it is certainly worth a look if you’ve enjoyed any of the author’s other works. 3/5 stars.
Well, don’t go into this one expecting that level of mastery. Remember how I noted this was his first book? It shows. It’s mostly plotless, and has a lot of rambling on from place to place. The narrator really has no direction and it shows (both figuratively and literally as he talks about going places all the time, and then a paragraph later changes his mind and wanders off somewhere else). It’s not exactly a bright and cheery book, but compared to The Thief, it certainly never was bleak enough that I felt I needed to put the book down. That said, the narrator is one of the biggest assholes I’ve read in literature for some time. As in, I really wished someone would just punch him in the face for most of the book.
The plot, in as much as there is one, follows a college student who, while wandering around aimlessly one night, discovers a corpse. The corpse doesn’t particularly interest him, what does is the gun in its hand. He takes the gun home, and it fills him with a sense of self worth and joy he’s never known. He becomes obsessed with it and the feelings it gives him, and he feels that he needs to give it a shot… literally.
If we get right down to it, the book is really just an extended metaphor for how owning a weapon creates violent behavior; a thesis that works given the disturbed nature of our character, but doesn’t particularly work for me as a whole. I honestly thought this book would be more… sinister. While it does go some of the directions I expected, it mostly plays off as a look at how personally nihilistic our narrator is and how detached he feels. Unlike our narrator in The Thief though, I never found him or his philosophies particularly entertaining or thought provoking (I suspect this is mostly because Nakamura was still developing his style). At the start of the book, I did find some of the lines shocking, in particular:
The gun was breathtakingly beautiful as ever. The girl I had just slept with was no comparison for the gun.
That one in particular deserved a reread. It made me think we were going to go somewhere really disturbing… but for most of the book, it’s really just rambling.
That is until the last 50 pages, where our character study truly does become fascinating. This could be deemed a spoiler, so I’ll tag it, but if you’re interested in the book, I’d advise giving it a look anyway.
In closing: this is an obvious first book. It is awkward and suffers from the problems that many first time authors have… but you can see glimpses of the author Nakamura will become. While I can’t give it a full recommendation, it is certainly worth a look if you’ve enjoyed any of the author’s other works. 3/5 stars.
March 24, 2019
A university student out walking one night stumbles across a gangster’s corpse and a loaded gun. He pockets the gun and proceeds to go coo-coo bananas over it, slowly deciding that he needs to fire it - at someone. Just ‘cos Chekhov’s rule I guess!
The Gun is not a very good novel. Despite being relatively short at 200 pages, almost all of it is unnecessary filler. There’s a side story involving the student’s dying biological father in a hospital that doesn’t go anywhere; he picks his targets arbitrarily; and most of the book is him wandering around smoking, thinking about the gun, polishing the gun, and alternately sleeping with either of his two girlfriends.
So it’s more of a psychological portrait than a plot-driven piece? Yes and no. The focus is on the main character’s interior life but I still don’t think we got to understand him very well. Why’s he obsessed with the gun? Why is he the way he is and why does he do what he does? It’s never really clear. Because he’s always been nuts and the gun was the straw that broke the camel’s back? Maybe the gun offered excitement and an escape from his mundane life? No clue. Not that I’m against this kind of story but it has to be engaging and/or somewhat clear as to what it’s point is.
Beyond the nothing story and its repetitive meanderings, and the flat supporting cast, the scene with the detective who confronts him was good and the ending was unexpectedly bonkers. Otherwise I’d say The Gun is an overlong, tedious novel and I’d recommend Fuminori Nakamura’s slightly better book The Thief over this instantly forgettable dross.
The Gun is not a very good novel. Despite being relatively short at 200 pages, almost all of it is unnecessary filler. There’s a side story involving the student’s dying biological father in a hospital that doesn’t go anywhere; he picks his targets arbitrarily; and most of the book is him wandering around smoking, thinking about the gun, polishing the gun, and alternately sleeping with either of his two girlfriends.
So it’s more of a psychological portrait than a plot-driven piece? Yes and no. The focus is on the main character’s interior life but I still don’t think we got to understand him very well. Why’s he obsessed with the gun? Why is he the way he is and why does he do what he does? It’s never really clear. Because he’s always been nuts and the gun was the straw that broke the camel’s back? Maybe the gun offered excitement and an escape from his mundane life? No clue. Not that I’m against this kind of story but it has to be engaging and/or somewhat clear as to what it’s point is.
Beyond the nothing story and its repetitive meanderings, and the flat supporting cast, the scene with the detective who confronts him was good and the ending was unexpectedly bonkers. Otherwise I’d say The Gun is an overlong, tedious novel and I’d recommend Fuminori Nakamura’s slightly better book The Thief over this instantly forgettable dross.
February 4, 2020
"The gun was everything to me. I was meaningless without it—I felt a savage love toward it. And yet the gun was cold to me. It drove me mad to think that the gun did not care, not even if I were consumed by that darkness. I’m not the one using the gun, I thought. The gun is using me—I was nothing more than a part of the system that activated the gun."
While walking in the rain at night, a young college student called Nishikawa stumbles upon a gun beside a dead body. On the spur of the moment, he keeps the gun. The deadly weapon adds a little excitement in his tedious life. However, as his life gets complicated, his obsession with the gun grows until he has no choice but to fire it.
The plot of the book is intriguing. It revolves around the life of an aimless and detached young man with unresolved issues and bottled up feelings who drowns out his boredom with cigarettes and girls. After discovering a gun, he begins to live his life with all the fervor of someone in love. However, the object of his affection takes the identity of its own and eventually becomes part of his identity.
I enjoyed the story thoroughly. The writing is dispassionate but at the same time, it evokes a sense of despair. The story is simple, and it portrays the conflict of a person in possession of a weapon aptly. It also makes you wonder whether it's the weapon that's deadly or the person firing it. It also subtly points out the negative impact of running away from your problems and not acknowledging your emotions.
Overall, it's a short and engaging book.
While walking in the rain at night, a young college student called Nishikawa stumbles upon a gun beside a dead body. On the spur of the moment, he keeps the gun. The deadly weapon adds a little excitement in his tedious life. However, as his life gets complicated, his obsession with the gun grows until he has no choice but to fire it.
The plot of the book is intriguing. It revolves around the life of an aimless and detached young man with unresolved issues and bottled up feelings who drowns out his boredom with cigarettes and girls. After discovering a gun, he begins to live his life with all the fervor of someone in love. However, the object of his affection takes the identity of its own and eventually becomes part of his identity.
I enjoyed the story thoroughly. The writing is dispassionate but at the same time, it evokes a sense of despair. The story is simple, and it portrays the conflict of a person in possession of a weapon aptly. It also makes you wonder whether it's the weapon that's deadly or the person firing it. It also subtly points out the negative impact of running away from your problems and not acknowledging your emotions.
Overall, it's a short and engaging book.
August 18, 2021
English translation below
Ein Student findet eine Leiche und daneben einen Revolver, den er mit nimmt. Den Fund des Toten meldet er nicht, stattdessen entwickelt er eine fast schon krankhafte Begierde und Faszination zur Waffe. Erst das haptische Erlebnis, die Schönheit der Form, die Handlichkeit, später die Faszination bezüglich der Handhabung und der sich bietenden Möglichkeit der Machtdemonstration.
Die steigende Obsession stellt der Autor bei dem Ich-Erzähler meines Empfindens gut dar. Das kleine Buch entfaltet so eine gewisse Sogwirkung. Auf was wird die Geschichte hinauslaufen? Was als Gesellschaftsstudie anfängt, wird später ein Psychogramm und ein Kriminalfall. Die Gründe, warum der Student die Waffe letztlich abfeuern muss, sind dagegen nicht so tiefgründig dargestellt. Es drängen sich da Parallelen zu Schuld und Sühne auf, doch bei Raskolnikov entwickelt Dostojewski wesentlich besser dessen Gedanken über die Werthaltigkeit von Leben und ob es einen perfekten Mord gibt. Perfekt Morden will der Protagonist hier nicht. Es steht kein intellektuell ausgearbeiteter Plan hinter der Tat und dadurch unterscheidet sich das Buch von Dostojewskis Werk. Nishikawa wirkt dagegen fremdgesteuert und ohne übergeordnetes Ziel. Es scheint eher, dass die Waffe ihren Halter besitzt als umgekehrt.
Dieser kleine Roman ist durchaus lesenswert, aber wenn ich Dostojewski vier Sterne gebe, kann ich Nakamura nicht auf dieselbe Stufe stellen. Insofern gute drei Sterne.
———————————
A student finds a corpse and next to it a revolver, which he takes with him. He doesn’t report the discovery of the dead Body, instead he develops an almost morbid desire and fascination for the weapon. First the haptic experience, the beauty of the shape, the handiness, later the fascination with handling and the possibility of demonstrating power.
The author portrays the growing obsession with the first-person narrator very well. The little book develops a certain pull. What is the story going to be? What begins as a study of society later becomes a psychogram and a criminal case. The reasons why the student has to fire the weapon in the end, on the other hand, are not presented so profoundly. Parallels to Crime and Punishment came to my mind, but with Raskolnikov Dostoyevsky is much better at developing his thoughts about the intrinsic value of life and whether there is a perfect murder. The protagonist here doesn't want to kill perfectly. There is no intellectually elaborated plan behind the act, and that is how the book differs from Dostoevsky's work. Nishikawa, on the other hand, works externally and has no overriding goal. It would seem that the weapon has its holder rather than the other way around.
This little novel is worth reading, but if I gave Dostoyevsky four stars, I can’t put Nakamura on the same level. In this respect, a good three stars.
Ein Student findet eine Leiche und daneben einen Revolver, den er mit nimmt. Den Fund des Toten meldet er nicht, stattdessen entwickelt er eine fast schon krankhafte Begierde und Faszination zur Waffe. Erst das haptische Erlebnis, die Schönheit der Form, die Handlichkeit, später die Faszination bezüglich der Handhabung und der sich bietenden Möglichkeit der Machtdemonstration.
Die steigende Obsession stellt der Autor bei dem Ich-Erzähler meines Empfindens gut dar. Das kleine Buch entfaltet so eine gewisse Sogwirkung. Auf was wird die Geschichte hinauslaufen? Was als Gesellschaftsstudie anfängt, wird später ein Psychogramm und ein Kriminalfall. Die Gründe, warum der Student die Waffe letztlich abfeuern muss, sind dagegen nicht so tiefgründig dargestellt. Es drängen sich da Parallelen zu Schuld und Sühne auf, doch bei Raskolnikov entwickelt Dostojewski wesentlich besser dessen Gedanken über die Werthaltigkeit von Leben und ob es einen perfekten Mord gibt. Perfekt Morden will der Protagonist hier nicht. Es steht kein intellektuell ausgearbeiteter Plan hinter der Tat und dadurch unterscheidet sich das Buch von Dostojewskis Werk. Nishikawa wirkt dagegen fremdgesteuert und ohne übergeordnetes Ziel. Es scheint eher, dass die Waffe ihren Halter besitzt als umgekehrt.
Dieser kleine Roman ist durchaus lesenswert, aber wenn ich Dostojewski vier Sterne gebe, kann ich Nakamura nicht auf dieselbe Stufe stellen. Insofern gute drei Sterne.
———————————
A student finds a corpse and next to it a revolver, which he takes with him. He doesn’t report the discovery of the dead Body, instead he develops an almost morbid desire and fascination for the weapon. First the haptic experience, the beauty of the shape, the handiness, later the fascination with handling and the possibility of demonstrating power.
The author portrays the growing obsession with the first-person narrator very well. The little book develops a certain pull. What is the story going to be? What begins as a study of society later becomes a psychogram and a criminal case. The reasons why the student has to fire the weapon in the end, on the other hand, are not presented so profoundly. Parallels to Crime and Punishment came to my mind, but with Raskolnikov Dostoyevsky is much better at developing his thoughts about the intrinsic value of life and whether there is a perfect murder. The protagonist here doesn't want to kill perfectly. There is no intellectually elaborated plan behind the act, and that is how the book differs from Dostoevsky's work. Nishikawa, on the other hand, works externally and has no overriding goal. It would seem that the weapon has its holder rather than the other way around.
This little novel is worth reading, but if I gave Dostoyevsky four stars, I can’t put Nakamura on the same level. In this respect, a good three stars.
July 30, 2015
I have a soft spot for noir and a soft spot for Japanese crime fiction, so this was an easy pick. Japanese noir works well in THE GUN, with the detached emotional style of a noir, the slowly building narrative, the plot that gets gradually more complex. But THE GUN gives us that old noir style in a very modern setting. There are cell phones and ballistics labs and all kinds of 21st century trappings in this story of a college student who stumbles on a body and a gun.
His attachment to the gun is irrational, but not entirely unexpected. In Japanese culture, guns aren't at all common and his ownership of something beautiful, powerful, and forbidden sparks something inside of him that will gradually grow out of control.
A spare novel, but has me very intrigued to read more Nakamura. Happy that Soho Crime is bringing him to the US.
His attachment to the gun is irrational, but not entirely unexpected. In Japanese culture, guns aren't at all common and his ownership of something beautiful, powerful, and forbidden sparks something inside of him that will gradually grow out of control.
A spare novel, but has me very intrigued to read more Nakamura. Happy that Soho Crime is bringing him to the US.
August 29, 2021
Das Buch macht es auch nicht-Japan-Kennern leicht, das der Erzählton in meinen Augen sehr westlich ist – was gleichermaßen aber auch schade ist, weil das ja nicht der Grund ist, japanische Literatur zu lesen.
Anfangs interessierte mich der angedeutete Aspekt der Amerikanisierung der japanischen Gesellschaft, insbesondere der Aspekt der amerikanischen Waffenbegeisterung.
Dieser Aspekt verliert sich aber weitgehend und man liest das Buch ohne Anstrengung zu Ende, aber auch ohne allzu große Begeisterung.
Da Nakamuras Bücher schmal sind, frage ich mich aber, ob es sich nicht lohnen würde, eines der folgenden (und vielleicht ausgefeilteren) seiner Werke zu lesen.
Anfangs interessierte mich der angedeutete Aspekt der Amerikanisierung der japanischen Gesellschaft, insbesondere der Aspekt der amerikanischen Waffenbegeisterung.
Dieser Aspekt verliert sich aber weitgehend und man liest das Buch ohne Anstrengung zu Ende, aber auch ohne allzu große Begeisterung.
Da Nakamuras Bücher schmal sind, frage ich mich aber, ob es sich nicht lohnen würde, eines der folgenden (und vielleicht ausgefeilteren) seiner Werke zu lesen.
February 14, 2020
I have a suspicion a Goodreads friend turned me on to this book. Thank you whoever you are. This was great!
This reminded me of Georges Simenon and also of Albert Camus, The Stranger. A young man in his early 20s, a university study, one night after walking aimlessly for a long period of time in the rain finds a gun next to a dead person, takes it, and from then on, the gun takes over his life. Prior to this Nishikawa was perfectly normal, albeit bored with his life. After finding the gun and now possessing it, he is always thinking about it…his behavior slowly starts to change throughout the book where acquaintances of his notice it and not gratefully. There are four bullets in the chamber. So, I, the reader, am wondering 1) whether he is going to use the gun first of all, because it is clear he really wants to – it’s as if the gun is controlling him – and 2) what happens to each of the four bullets. Near the end of the book, I would find it hard to believe that anybody else reading it could casually put it down and save it for the next day. You have to keep on reading until its denouement. This guy is not a psychopath…he seemed perfectly normal at the beginning of the book (although this reviewer from LA Review of Books disagrees: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/t... ).
Nakamura had this as an Author’s Note at the very beginning of the book:
‘The Thief’, ‘Evil and the Mask’, and ‘Last Winter, We Parted’ are my novels that have been translated into English to date. ‘The Gun’ was written long before any of those books. It first appeared in a Japanese literary magazine in 2002, and the following year it was published in hardcover as my debut. I am delighted to see this long-ago novel of mine retroactively translated into English. Mu deepest gratitude to everyone who has been involved in the process, and to all those kind enough to read it. Fuminoi Nakamura, August 1, 2015
The book garnered the Shincho Prize for debut fiction.
Of the Georges Simenon books I have read to date, I’d have to say this is most reminiscent of The Glass Cage or The Iron Staircase. The Gun is a novel that is definitely noir fiction. I shall have to seek his other books including The Thief.
This reminded me of Georges Simenon and also of Albert Camus, The Stranger. A young man in his early 20s, a university study, one night after walking aimlessly for a long period of time in the rain finds a gun next to a dead person, takes it, and from then on, the gun takes over his life. Prior to this Nishikawa was perfectly normal, albeit bored with his life. After finding the gun and now possessing it, he is always thinking about it…his behavior slowly starts to change throughout the book where acquaintances of his notice it and not gratefully. There are four bullets in the chamber. So, I, the reader, am wondering 1) whether he is going to use the gun first of all, because it is clear he really wants to – it’s as if the gun is controlling him – and 2) what happens to each of the four bullets. Near the end of the book, I would find it hard to believe that anybody else reading it could casually put it down and save it for the next day. You have to keep on reading until its denouement. This guy is not a psychopath…he seemed perfectly normal at the beginning of the book (although this reviewer from LA Review of Books disagrees: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/t... ).
Nakamura had this as an Author’s Note at the very beginning of the book:
‘The Thief’, ‘Evil and the Mask’, and ‘Last Winter, We Parted’ are my novels that have been translated into English to date. ‘The Gun’ was written long before any of those books. It first appeared in a Japanese literary magazine in 2002, and the following year it was published in hardcover as my debut. I am delighted to see this long-ago novel of mine retroactively translated into English. Mu deepest gratitude to everyone who has been involved in the process, and to all those kind enough to read it. Fuminoi Nakamura, August 1, 2015
The book garnered the Shincho Prize for debut fiction.
Of the Georges Simenon books I have read to date, I’d have to say this is most reminiscent of The Glass Cage or The Iron Staircase. The Gun is a novel that is definitely noir fiction. I shall have to seek his other books including The Thief.
October 24, 2024
4,5 Sterne
Ein melancholischer Student, der eine Waffe gefunden hat, entwickelt eine obsessive Beziehung zu ihr.
Bin ja bezüglich Waffenverherrlichung sehr skeptisch gewesen.
Fuminori Nakamura hat das Getriebene - man könnte es Obzession/Objektsexualität des Protagonisten Tooru Nishikawa nennen - so anschaulich und düster geschildert, dass der Text eine suggestive Wirkung auf uns LeserInnen (zumindest auf mich) ausübte.
Spannend, sprachlich gut.
Großartige Übersetzung übrigens von Thomas Eggenberg.
Mein Dank geht an die liebe Fabienne von japanconnect, die meine Vorbehalte zerstreut hat.
Zitat
"Eines Tages würde ich den Revolver benutzen. Daran zweifelte ich keine Sekunde mehr. Im Besitz eines Revolvers zu sein bedeutete, dass jeder Tag von der Möglichkeit seines Gebrauchs aufgeladen war, bis irgendwann der richtige Zeitpunkt gekommen sein würde, um abzudrücken. Diese Gewissheit rückte die ferne Zukunft in greifbare Nähe, als besäße sie ein Eigenleben, das den ersten Schuss herbeizwingen würde. Und wenn nun die Zukunft schon entschieden war, sollte sie doch bitte bald Wirklichkeit werden. Der Wunsch nahm mich gefangen, raubte mir fast den Verstand."
Ein melancholischer Student, der eine Waffe gefunden hat, entwickelt eine obsessive Beziehung zu ihr.
Bin ja bezüglich Waffenverherrlichung sehr skeptisch gewesen.
Fuminori Nakamura hat das Getriebene - man könnte es Obzession/Objektsexualität des Protagonisten Tooru Nishikawa nennen - so anschaulich und düster geschildert, dass der Text eine suggestive Wirkung auf uns LeserInnen (zumindest auf mich) ausübte.
Spannend, sprachlich gut.
Großartige Übersetzung übrigens von Thomas Eggenberg.
Mein Dank geht an die liebe Fabienne von japanconnect, die meine Vorbehalte zerstreut hat.
Zitat
"Eines Tages würde ich den Revolver benutzen. Daran zweifelte ich keine Sekunde mehr. Im Besitz eines Revolvers zu sein bedeutete, dass jeder Tag von der Möglichkeit seines Gebrauchs aufgeladen war, bis irgendwann der richtige Zeitpunkt gekommen sein würde, um abzudrücken. Diese Gewissheit rückte die ferne Zukunft in greifbare Nähe, als besäße sie ein Eigenleben, das den ersten Schuss herbeizwingen würde. Und wenn nun die Zukunft schon entschieden war, sollte sie doch bitte bald Wirklichkeit werden. Der Wunsch nahm mich gefangen, raubte mir fast den Verstand."
August 16, 2021
Der Einstieg ist großartig. Nishikawa, ein Student in Tokio, erzählt sehr eindrucksvoll und greifbar wie er durch Zufall eine Leiche und daneben einen amerikanischen Revolver entdeckt. Der Anblick der Waffe fasziniert ihn magisch und er nimmt sie in Besitz. Oder besser gesagt, die Waffe nimmt ihn in Besitz, denn sie beherrscht zunehmend seinen Geist und wird zu einer alles vereinnahmenden Besessenheit. Allein der Zweck des Objekts führt unweigerlich zum Zwang, sie früher oder später benützen zu müssen.
Die Dichte des ersten Kapitels hält der Autor aber nicht durch. Anfangs sah es so aus, als stünde der Colt für die in Japan sich ausbreitende US-Kultur. Die Obsession für die Waffe bildet einen harten Kontrast zur Fadesse seines früheren Lebens und dem seiner demotivierten Mitstudierenden, deren einziger Lebenszweck in seichter Unterhaltung und unverbindlichem Sex zu bestehen scheint, eine naheliegende Gelegenheit für sozialkritische Thematik als Subtext. Doch beides wird nicht weiter verfolgt und dient mehr als atmosphärischer Hintergrund. Sieht man von wenig handlungsrelevanten Füllelementen ab, bleibt eine flott erzählte Psychostory. Wer das mag, wird sicher angetan sein. Mich interessiert der Nervenkitzel als bestimmende Motivation einer Geschichte nicht wirklich, aber das ist mein Problem und soll keine Kritik sein.
Etwas straffer lektoriert gäbe dieser sehr kurze Debütroman eine ausgezeichnete Kurzgeschichte oder Erzählung ab. Nakamuras Talent ist offensichtlich und es wundert mich nicht, dass sich der Autor, wie ich vernehme, in seinen Folgewerken deutlich gesteigert hat.
Die Dichte des ersten Kapitels hält der Autor aber nicht durch. Anfangs sah es so aus, als stünde der Colt für die in Japan sich ausbreitende US-Kultur. Die Obsession für die Waffe bildet einen harten Kontrast zur Fadesse seines früheren Lebens und dem seiner demotivierten Mitstudierenden, deren einziger Lebenszweck in seichter Unterhaltung und unverbindlichem Sex zu bestehen scheint, eine naheliegende Gelegenheit für sozialkritische Thematik als Subtext. Doch beides wird nicht weiter verfolgt und dient mehr als atmosphärischer Hintergrund. Sieht man von wenig handlungsrelevanten Füllelementen ab, bleibt eine flott erzählte Psychostory. Wer das mag, wird sicher angetan sein. Mich interessiert der Nervenkitzel als bestimmende Motivation einer Geschichte nicht wirklich, aber das ist mein Problem und soll keine Kritik sein.
Etwas straffer lektoriert gäbe dieser sehr kurze Debütroman eine ausgezeichnete Kurzgeschichte oder Erzählung ab. Nakamuras Talent ist offensichtlich und es wundert mich nicht, dass sich der Autor, wie ich vernehme, in seinen Folgewerken deutlich gesteigert hat.
June 13, 2017
2 1/2 to 3 stars (I'm wavering here because I like this writer so much and his style-focused on psychological intensity, sometimes to the expense of all else-generally really works for me).
While translated and released in English well after better-known Nakamura works like The Thief and Evil and the Mask, The Gun is the author's first published work. Readers familiar with Nakamura's novels will observe that many elements of his mature style are already present here: the close, almost obsessive first-person POV; the focus on interior psychological states rather than exterior world-building or detail; and the curiously affectless, almost deadpan dialogue which occasionally breaks up the claustrophobic monologues and which, oddly, doesn't seem inauthentic but actually helps to establish the deep loneliness and crushing emotional burden most of his characters struggle under (this last seems like his clearest link to classic American noir, a genre his work has often been compared to, enough so that he's been labeled the master of modern Japanese noir).
But there are also clear signs throughout 'The Gun' that this is the work of a writer in progress, someone who doesn't quite have his feet under him or full control of his unique style and themes. 'The Gun' feels both padded out (far too many episodes of the narrator walking around, smoking, and having pointless conversations on his cell phone) and somehow underfleshed. Nakamura introduces characters and scenes that he surely would have cleverly worked into the fabric of later books but which are dropped here without any sort of resolution or payoff. And one particular scene, a crucial but grotesque and horrific incident of animal suffering, comes to seem almost gratuitous because it proves convenient rather than ultimately character-driven or necessary in the greater scheme of the novel. Even the ending seems a bit contrived-moderately shocking but not really convincing or fully in character.
'The Gun' is a must read for fans of Nakamura and I'm not sorry to have picked it up but I'm not sure the story's strong enough for a casual reader of Japanese suspense and mystery.
While translated and released in English well after better-known Nakamura works like The Thief and Evil and the Mask, The Gun is the author's first published work. Readers familiar with Nakamura's novels will observe that many elements of his mature style are already present here: the close, almost obsessive first-person POV; the focus on interior psychological states rather than exterior world-building or detail; and the curiously affectless, almost deadpan dialogue which occasionally breaks up the claustrophobic monologues and which, oddly, doesn't seem inauthentic but actually helps to establish the deep loneliness and crushing emotional burden most of his characters struggle under (this last seems like his clearest link to classic American noir, a genre his work has often been compared to, enough so that he's been labeled the master of modern Japanese noir).
But there are also clear signs throughout 'The Gun' that this is the work of a writer in progress, someone who doesn't quite have his feet under him or full control of his unique style and themes. 'The Gun' feels both padded out (far too many episodes of the narrator walking around, smoking, and having pointless conversations on his cell phone) and somehow underfleshed. Nakamura introduces characters and scenes that he surely would have cleverly worked into the fabric of later books but which are dropped here without any sort of resolution or payoff. And one particular scene, a crucial but grotesque and horrific incident of animal suffering, comes to seem almost gratuitous because it proves convenient rather than ultimately character-driven or necessary in the greater scheme of the novel. Even the ending seems a bit contrived-moderately shocking but not really convincing or fully in character.
'The Gun' is a must read for fans of Nakamura and I'm not sorry to have picked it up but I'm not sure the story's strong enough for a casual reader of Japanese suspense and mystery.
August 18, 2021
Ein spannender Psychothriller, bei dem Freunde des gepflegten Nervenkitzels auf ihre Kosten kommen. Ein Student findet einen Revolver und entwickelt in Folge eine geradezu krankhafte Obsession in Bezug auf die Waffe. Zuvor ein eher reservierter Charakter, kühl distanziert seiner Umwelt gegenüber, verliert er langsam die Kontrolle über seine Gefühle. Die Faszination für den Revolver wirkt wie ein Katalysator und setzt Kräfte frei, die ihn bedrohlich aus dem emotionalen Gleichgewicht bringen. Nishikawa ist ein Mensch, der sich selbst und anderen entfremdet ist. Vieles deutet darauf hin, dass die Gründe dafür in seiner Vergangenheit liegen. Durch den Umgang mit der Waffe rücken längst verdrängte Konflikte wieder in das Bewusstsein, was eine gefährliche Dynamik in Gang setzt.
Am Spannungsaufbau gibt es nichts auszusetzen. Über allem schwebt die Frage, wie weit Nishikawa am Ende tatsächlich gehen wird. Auch die an den Roman noir angelehnte Atmosphäre ist stimmig. Trotzdem fehlt der Geschichte etwas zum ganz großen Wurf. Was vermutlich daran liegt, dass einem einiges bereits bekannt vorkommt. So weckt der Protagonist Erinnerungen an große literarische Figuren, wie zum Beispiel Albert Camus' Meursault aus Der Fremde oder Dostojewskis Raskolnikow aus Verbrechen und Strafe. Grundsätzlich müssen solche Zitate nichts Schlechtes sein, aber Fuminori Nakamura bleibt in diesem Fall doch zu sehr an den Vorlagen haften. Vielleicht erklärbar durch den Umstand, dass es sich um einen Debütroman handelt und der Autor noch nicht ganz zu einem eigenen Stil gefunden hat. ★★★½
Am Spannungsaufbau gibt es nichts auszusetzen. Über allem schwebt die Frage, wie weit Nishikawa am Ende tatsächlich gehen wird. Auch die an den Roman noir angelehnte Atmosphäre ist stimmig. Trotzdem fehlt der Geschichte etwas zum ganz großen Wurf. Was vermutlich daran liegt, dass einem einiges bereits bekannt vorkommt. So weckt der Protagonist Erinnerungen an große literarische Figuren, wie zum Beispiel Albert Camus' Meursault aus Der Fremde oder Dostojewskis Raskolnikow aus Verbrechen und Strafe. Grundsätzlich müssen solche Zitate nichts Schlechtes sein, aber Fuminori Nakamura bleibt in diesem Fall doch zu sehr an den Vorlagen haften. Vielleicht erklärbar durch den Umstand, dass es sich um einen Debütroman handelt und der Autor noch nicht ganz zu einem eigenen Stil gefunden hat. ★★★½
August 30, 2024
Ein Student findet nachts in einer schummrigen Seitengasse Tokyos einen toten Mann, neben ihm sein Revolver. Ohne nachzudenken nimmt er den Revolver an sich.
Je länger er im Besitz dieses Tatgegenstandes ist, desto mehr greift es Besitz von ihm: beherrscht sein Tun und Denken und verändert ihn im Umgang mit seiner Welt grundlegend. Kurz, der Revolver wirkt ein wenig wie der Ring in „Der Herr der Ringe“.
Über die Macht des Revolvers, die jener auf unseren Protagonisten ausübt, zeichnet Nakamura ein eindrückliches Psychogramm, das sich süffisant liest.
Ein sehr empfehlenswertes Debüt. Mehr dazu im Lesemonat Juni auf meinem YouTube Kanal „Japan Connect“.
♥️♥️♥️♥️🤍
https://youtu.be/SjQpJqLFjLo?si=No9aX...
Je länger er im Besitz dieses Tatgegenstandes ist, desto mehr greift es Besitz von ihm: beherrscht sein Tun und Denken und verändert ihn im Umgang mit seiner Welt grundlegend. Kurz, der Revolver wirkt ein wenig wie der Ring in „Der Herr der Ringe“.
Über die Macht des Revolvers, die jener auf unseren Protagonisten ausübt, zeichnet Nakamura ein eindrückliches Psychogramm, das sich süffisant liest.
Ein sehr empfehlenswertes Debüt. Mehr dazu im Lesemonat Juni auf meinem YouTube Kanal „Japan Connect“.
♥️♥️♥️♥️🤍
https://youtu.be/SjQpJqLFjLo?si=No9aX...
January 30, 2019
The storytelling follows a satisfying if predictable noir arc; the real dazzle for me isn't in the storytelling, though, but in the grotesque details, meticulously observed and reported by the narrator, about both humans and animals that he observes in pain throughout the novel. This is Nakamura's first novel and it demonstrates a lot of self-control and natural talent for pacing.
August 21, 2021
Gut dreiviertel des Buches hinderte mich nur die Frage nach der Auflösung der Geschichte am Abbruch. Sämtliche Charaktere verstanden es nicht mein Interesse für ihr Denken und Handeln zu gewinnen. Sie waren einfach fad und leer wie ihre Dialoge.
Den wirklich und in meinen Augen auch der einzige gekonnt gesetzte Schachzug ist die Begegnung des Ermittlers und des "Revolverhelden" - der Wendepunkt in der Geschichte, der Spannungstreiber. Der Polizist verweist ihn auf mögliche Handlungsalternativen und setzt ihn gleichzeitig unter Druck.
Das Finale passt durchaus zur ganzen Geschichte, obgleich mir das Motiv und die psychologische emotionale Verstrickung des Protagonisten von Nakumura nicht einleuchtend scheint. Pure Langeweile, Faszination des Außergewöhnlichen oder der Macht, versteckte Minderwertigkeitskomplexe aus seiner Kindheit resultierend? - Mich lässt dieses Buch ratlos zurück.
Den wirklich und in meinen Augen auch der einzige gekonnt gesetzte Schachzug ist die Begegnung des Ermittlers und des "Revolverhelden" - der Wendepunkt in der Geschichte, der Spannungstreiber. Der Polizist verweist ihn auf mögliche Handlungsalternativen und setzt ihn gleichzeitig unter Druck.
Das Finale passt durchaus zur ganzen Geschichte, obgleich mir das Motiv und die psychologische emotionale Verstrickung des Protagonisten von Nakumura nicht einleuchtend scheint. Pure Langeweile, Faszination des Außergewöhnlichen oder der Macht, versteckte Minderwertigkeitskomplexe aus seiner Kindheit resultierend? - Mich lässt dieses Buch ratlos zurück.
September 14, 2019
I remember reading a review which called The Gun "masterwork from one of the best modern practitioners of the crime novel. " I couldn't agree more. How the discovery of a Gun beside a dead body psychologically affects a student is portrayed beautifully. The protagonist of this book is not the student- it's the Gun-made into an entity by the amazing narration that brings it to life.
March 14, 2021
In a way, this was an interesting counterpoint or complement of the other book I read this week The Assassination Bureau, Ltd., which argued whether it is or is not ethical to kill "bad" people. This particular book asks if an object (in this case, the gun, an object whose objective is to kill) can cause someone to help it fulfill its purpose. Does having a gun drive you to kill? Guns are not prevalent in Japan like they are in the US, so the musing & weight of the story is based on a gun being a rare thing for an individual to possess. The story itself feels very remote & distant, reflecting the narrator, a sociopath who increasingly dissociates from his life, the people around him, society at large. The strong nihilism theme reflects books like Fight Club and Popular Hits of the Showa Era, imo.
While I can appreciate the gloomy topic, I didn't actually like the story very much. (Probably a good thing?) Worth reading for exploring the topic, but it's grim task to read it.
While I can appreciate the gloomy topic, I didn't actually like the story very much. (Probably a good thing?) Worth reading for exploring the topic, but it's grim task to read it.
May 18, 2016
This is an extraordinarily bleak and gripping debut about a student - alienated, disaffected. He finds a gun - and little by little the gun eats into his being, takes him over. He sleeps with a girl whose name he can’t remember (she gives him toast so he enters her in his phone under T for Toast Girl), meets another girl whom he thinks he might fancy .. but the gun is always there, crying out first to be carried around, then to be fired .... The extraordinary thing is that we actually get to care about this callow shallow youth - whereas in Nakamura’s later books I felt less sympathy for the protagonist. The level of bleakness, alienation, anomie is extraordinary.
March 11, 2019
This author deserves the term ���Japanese noir’. Excellent novel, though very different from most of the thrillers one usually reads. Especially the athmosphere and the MC are very well described.
Strangely enough I’m rereading L'Étranger at the moment and the ressemblence between both MC was striking.
Strangely enough I’m rereading L'Étranger at the moment and the ressemblence between both MC was striking.
February 7, 2018
An empty, almost robotic young man finds a gun. He is suddenly in possession of joy and purpose and pleasure and power. His entire existence becomes focused on the gun....it has given an empty life meaning. Look out....this can't end well.
April 17, 2022
3.5 rounding up. The final chapter bumped up the rating.
August 9, 2020
The Gun is the story of a college student, Nishikawa, who became obsessed with a Gun which he stole. Nishikawa came across the gun while he was strolling aimlessly on a rainy night, lying near a body drenched in blood. The sight of the gun brought an intense joy in him, and he began to feel that- 'the gun was mine'.
Leaving the body, behind he took the gun and left.
Nishikawa slowly becomes obsessed with the gun. He held the gun like a treasure, with his thoughts always returning to the gun, detaching him from the outside world.
Soon, the gun dominates his world. All he cared about was the gun, and he started to believe that the gun wants him to fire it.
The book starts without wasting time on setting a premise. This is where I found an air of similarity with Albert Camus's works.
The swiftness with which the story began is not followed in describing the surroundings.
"There was a chill in the air- the rain banished any trace of warmth From earlier in the day." -such detailed descriptions take the reader to the midst of the action.
Human consciousness is an unstable thing- it is influenced by various circumstances, societal norms, one's experiences, etc and is determined by the interaction of all these things. I really enjoyed how Nakamura brings this point to the light in such a simple style. It also points out that what's crucial to lead a happy life is not knowing what has to be thrown away but doing it at the right time.
Overall, it's a short, intriguing and reflective story.
My Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌠
Leaving the body, behind he took the gun and left.
Nishikawa slowly becomes obsessed with the gun. He held the gun like a treasure, with his thoughts always returning to the gun, detaching him from the outside world.
Soon, the gun dominates his world. All he cared about was the gun, and he started to believe that the gun wants him to fire it.
The book starts without wasting time on setting a premise. This is where I found an air of similarity with Albert Camus's works.
The swiftness with which the story began is not followed in describing the surroundings.
"There was a chill in the air- the rain banished any trace of warmth From earlier in the day." -such detailed descriptions take the reader to the midst of the action.
Human consciousness is an unstable thing- it is influenced by various circumstances, societal norms, one's experiences, etc and is determined by the interaction of all these things. I really enjoyed how Nakamura brings this point to the light in such a simple style. It also points out that what's crucial to lead a happy life is not knowing what has to be thrown away but doing it at the right time.
Overall, it's a short, intriguing and reflective story.
My Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌠
January 17, 2016
Nakamura is not my favorite writer/stylist (seems to come from the Murakami no-style school of "Tell, not show"), and yet this was an extremely readable portrait of a young sociopath. Despite some flat writing, Nakamura has a keen eye for character and pace; becomes a real page-turner in the latter half. Enjoyed this more than The Thief, which also had good character work, but I found plot wise to be a little cliched.
January 23, 2022
I confess I don't remember much of "The Thief", but I think I enjoyed this book more. I remember The Thief had more of a YA feel, but this felt more "noir" and thrilleresque throughout. It is quite psychological but still eventful. As someone mentioned (I think), I feel like Alfred Hitchcock could have made a movie about this.
March 31, 2022
Wonderful, clear and concise writing. I would liken this story to the obsession Frodo has with the Ring.
Here we have a man besotted by a gun which becomes all consuming and leads him to dangerous and ultimately tragic circumstances.
Here we have a man besotted by a gun which becomes all consuming and leads him to dangerous and ultimately tragic circumstances.
November 28, 2022
Es ist eine gute Geschichte. Der Protagonist hat mich aber zunehmend mit seinen Gedanken und Sorgen ermüdet. Das Buch hinterlässt bei mir leider nichts.
October 29, 2019
Der Student Nishikawa läuft in einer regnerischen Nacht ziellos durch die Straßen Tokios. Nahe einer Brücke, am Fluss Arakawa, entdeckt er per Zufall die Leiche eines Mannes. Für Nishikawa deutet die Szene auf einen Selbstmord hin, denn neben dem Toten liegt ein Revolver. Nach dem ersten Schock nimmt der junge Mann aus einem Impuls heraus die fremde Waffe an sich und verschwindet mit ihr unauffällig. Schnell findet er Gefallen an dem Revolver, der eine unheimliche und gefährliche Faszination auf ihn ausübt. Schon nach wenigen Tagen ist er geradezu besessen von der Waffe, in der noch vier Kugeln stecken. All seine Gedanken kreisen um sie. Er poliert sie immer wieder. Doch bald schon treibt ihn die Fantasie um, den Revolver abzufeuern. Wird er dem Drang nachgeben?
„Der Revolver“ ist der Debütroman von Fuminori Nakamura.
Meine Meinung:
Der Roman besteht aus 17 eher kurzen Kapiteln. Erzählt wird in der Ich-Perspektive aus der Sicht von Nishikawa in chronologischer Reihenfolge. Vorangestellt ist ein ebenso informatives wie sympathisches Vorwort des japanischen Autors.
Geprägt ist der Roman von einer klaren, recht prägnanten Sprache. Der Schreibstil wirkt zunächst ziemlich nüchtern, hat aber immer wieder eindringliche Sprachbilder und Vergleiche zu bieten. Dadurch wird eine dichte Atmosphäre erzeugt. Von den ersten Seiten an versteht es der Autor, mit seinen Worten zu fesseln. Besonders grandios finde ich den Einstieg.
Im Mittelpunkt der Geschichte steht zweifelsohne Nishikawa, der im Alter von sechs Jahren seine leibliche Familie verlassen musste, bei der er noch Tōru hieß. Nach einer Zeit im Kinderheim wurde er von Adoptiveltern aufgenommen. Die Gefühle von Einsamkeit, Gleichgültigkeit und der eigenen Bedeutungslosigkeit dominieren sein Leben, in das der Revolver Abwechslung bringt. Nicht immer konnte ich das Verhalten des sonderbaren Protagonisten in Gänze nachvollziehen. Zudem fiel es mir schwer, trotz seiner nicht leichten Kindheit Sympathie für ihn zu entwickeln, doch seine Gedanken- und Gefühlswelt wird sehr gut deutlich. Auch die übrigen Figuren im Roman kommen keineswegs klischeehaft daher.
Mit der Handlung rund um den Revolver greift der Autor eine interessante Thematik auf: den Umgang mit Schusswaffen. Inhaltlich ist der Roman auch ansonsten recht düster angehaucht. Der Tod nimmt viel Raum ein, wobei es darum nicht nur im Zusammenhang mit der Waffe geht. Auch Krankheit, Tierquälerei, Missbrauch und andere Themen spielen in der Geschichte eine Rolle. Darüber hinaus gibt es weitere gesellschaftskritische Komponenten. So schafft es das Buch an mehreren Stellen, zum Nachdenken anzuregen.
Auf knapp 200 Seiten bleibt die Spannung konstant von Anfang bis Ende erhalten: Wird der Protagonist der Versuchung der Waffe nachgeben? Besonders intensiv sind die Kapitel zu Beginn und zum Schluss. Im Mittelteil fällt der Roman ein wenig ab, wobei auch dort keine Langeweile beim Lesen aufkommt.
Das Cover mit der Illustration von Andy Warhol passt sehr gut zur Geschichte. Auch der knackige, schnörkellose Titel gefällt mir.
Mein Fazit:
Mit „Der Revolver“ ist Fuminori Nakamura ein lesenswertes Debüt gelungen, das mich fesseln konnte. Eine besondere Lektüre, die neugierig auf das übrige Werk des Autors macht.
„Der Revolver“ ist der Debütroman von Fuminori Nakamura.
Meine Meinung:
Der Roman besteht aus 17 eher kurzen Kapiteln. Erzählt wird in der Ich-Perspektive aus der Sicht von Nishikawa in chronologischer Reihenfolge. Vorangestellt ist ein ebenso informatives wie sympathisches Vorwort des japanischen Autors.
Geprägt ist der Roman von einer klaren, recht prägnanten Sprache. Der Schreibstil wirkt zunächst ziemlich nüchtern, hat aber immer wieder eindringliche Sprachbilder und Vergleiche zu bieten. Dadurch wird eine dichte Atmosphäre erzeugt. Von den ersten Seiten an versteht es der Autor, mit seinen Worten zu fesseln. Besonders grandios finde ich den Einstieg.
Im Mittelpunkt der Geschichte steht zweifelsohne Nishikawa, der im Alter von sechs Jahren seine leibliche Familie verlassen musste, bei der er noch Tōru hieß. Nach einer Zeit im Kinderheim wurde er von Adoptiveltern aufgenommen. Die Gefühle von Einsamkeit, Gleichgültigkeit und der eigenen Bedeutungslosigkeit dominieren sein Leben, in das der Revolver Abwechslung bringt. Nicht immer konnte ich das Verhalten des sonderbaren Protagonisten in Gänze nachvollziehen. Zudem fiel es mir schwer, trotz seiner nicht leichten Kindheit Sympathie für ihn zu entwickeln, doch seine Gedanken- und Gefühlswelt wird sehr gut deutlich. Auch die übrigen Figuren im Roman kommen keineswegs klischeehaft daher.
Mit der Handlung rund um den Revolver greift der Autor eine interessante Thematik auf: den Umgang mit Schusswaffen. Inhaltlich ist der Roman auch ansonsten recht düster angehaucht. Der Tod nimmt viel Raum ein, wobei es darum nicht nur im Zusammenhang mit der Waffe geht. Auch Krankheit, Tierquälerei, Missbrauch und andere Themen spielen in der Geschichte eine Rolle. Darüber hinaus gibt es weitere gesellschaftskritische Komponenten. So schafft es das Buch an mehreren Stellen, zum Nachdenken anzuregen.
Auf knapp 200 Seiten bleibt die Spannung konstant von Anfang bis Ende erhalten: Wird der Protagonist der Versuchung der Waffe nachgeben? Besonders intensiv sind die Kapitel zu Beginn und zum Schluss. Im Mittelteil fällt der Roman ein wenig ab, wobei auch dort keine Langeweile beim Lesen aufkommt.
Das Cover mit der Illustration von Andy Warhol passt sehr gut zur Geschichte. Auch der knackige, schnörkellose Titel gefällt mir.
Mein Fazit:
Mit „Der Revolver“ ist Fuminori Nakamura ein lesenswertes Debüt gelungen, das mich fesseln konnte. Eine besondere Lektüre, die neugierig auf das übrige Werk des Autors macht.
February 16, 2020
Sehr düster, sehr noir und ein toller Schreibstil. Das Buch handelt von Obsession und deren Folgen. Auch wenn man glaubt davon geheilt zu sein, kreisen die Gedanken doch ständig um dieses eine Objekt der Begierde...
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